This Wednesday November 23rd, 12 Top Chefs from across British Columbia will compete in a cook-off to be named this years Vancouver Aquarium’s 2011 Ocean Wise Chowder Chowdown Champion.

The top 12 chefs that will be competing are:

• Eric Pless – Coast Restaurant
• Tyler Groenestyn – Codfathers Seafood Market
• Jennifer Dodd – Edible Canada
• Daiji Tanaka – Hapa Izakaya Kitsilano
• Paul Cecconi – Local Lounge-Grille
• Nicholas Croooks – The Noodle Box
• Chris Whittaker – O’Douls Restaurant and Bar
• Chester Velas – Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts
• Natasha Harris – Sunset Bay Yacht Group
• Ron Gibb – Westward Ho! Public House and Grill Room at the University Golf Club
• Myke Shaw and Kelsey Timler – Vancouver Aquarium
• Ned Bell – YEW restaurant + bar at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver

Unforutnately all tickets are sold out to this event, but I will be one of the lucky few that will be able to taste these awesome chowders as well some crafted beers and vote for my favourite in the People’s Choice award.

Thanks to the Vancouver Aquarium for including me in this event.

It’s not often in our lives we reach great milestones. Today is one of those live milestones for me. 10 years ago on this day I packed up what little I had; a suitcase, 2 big boxes which housed my computer back then, and headed on a plane to new adventures in the West Coast.

This was to be an experiment. I was going to give it at least 3 months to see if I could make a life here. The only person I knew coming here was Russ and moving in together was scary as hell for the both of us. Now 10 years later I couldn’t think of my life any differently. Things just played well off each other and continued to blossom from there. We have a wonderful home in trendy Yaletown. We have 2 amazing pets – Junior and Syd (but we will never forget Chelsea).

I have amazing friends that have stuck with me through out this whole journey are still very important members of my inner circle. They have helped me in so many ways that I am so thankful for.

The only drawback to my move was moving so far away from my family. This past year has really showed me how important they are to me and how much I love them and miss them.

So Vancouver thank you for making my last 10 years here so wonderful. You have helped me grow up into a responsible adult. You have shown me amazing things. Your beauty is outstanding and no one can take that away from you.

Finally after over a year of the completion of Phase 2 of Emery Barnes Park in Vancouver, Phase 3 is getting closer to completion. Today the crews finally started to arrive to finish off this great green space.

The remaining section is located at the corner of Seymour and Davie Street and will include an entry plaza containing benches and trellises and added green space.

From what I am told the delay at completing this phase was due to the owners of the buildings that were in its place prior thus resulting in the team that was set to finish the project moving onto other projects.

I enjoy this park as it’s where I often take Junior to play, though he doesn’t like the gravel in the dog park area (hell most dogs don’t like that area).

Ever since phase 2 was completed, there have been many people enjoy the park and the play area. I think this was a great investment by the city and will be really amazing once it has been completely finished.

Phase 3 is scheduled to be completed in November 2011.

The weather wasn’t looking the best for this past weekend’s Vancouver Gay Pride Parade, but the clouds broke early on the day to make it a wonderful and warm day to watch the parade.

As usual, the parade is long with over 130 floats going for over 2.5 hours from start to finish. Though the parade was long, it was very colourful and had a great time watching all the floats and characters go by.

Below are some of my favourite photos from the parade.

You can view the rest of the photos on my Flickr Set.

This year marked the 23rd anniversary of the Dragon Boat Festival in Vancouver and after several years of missing it or not being around in the city, I finally caught a couple of races on Sunday afternoon. The festival attracts over 100,000 people and has about 180 Drago Boat teams racing during the 2 days.

The races begun just before the Cambie Bridge, across Cooper's Park, and ended just at the base of the Telus Science World.

Alas I'm not sure who won the races or what categories they were racing in, but I'm sure everyone had an awesome time.

I'm even thinking maybe next year joining a team. Anyone else with me? :)

You can see more of my photos from those couple of races on my Flickr Page.

I have to thank my work colleague Debra for letting me know that Yaletown will be having their 3rd annual Dog Day Afternoon this coming Sunday (that’s May 29th) at Cooper’s Park in Yaletown. The event is being put together by Yaletown Roundhouse and Alpha Dog Training Company. This event will allow fellow dog owners to come together and visit information booths, participate in some demos as well as possibly win some great prizes. They are even offering caricatures with you four legged friend, how cool is that?!

The event takes place between 11 – 2pm on May 29th and is a free event!

Weather permitting I’m sure I’ll be there with Junior in tow to check things out.

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There is always something wonderful about waking up to a city that has just had a few centimeters of fresh snow. Fresh snow always seems to make people happier and the city always looks amazing.

We here in Vancouver don’t get many of those days as the rest of Canada. For us, we have to usually travel up to the mountains if we want to get our taste of the “white stuff”. So when it snows in the city, people genuinely seem to be in better spirits. People seem to be friendlier and for me, the city starts to feel like a small town. I’m not sure if it is due to all of us, for this brief moment in time, share something in common. Granted I’m not so sure how the drivers are feeling right about now .

It’s always fun seeing all the snowmen, and women, that start to appear throughout the city

Junior just loves to play in the snow. He would rather be out there hearing the crunching of the snow on my feet and waiting for me to toss a snowball than actually doing his “business”.

Sadly I know the snow will soon turn in to slush, but as long as it’s out there I’ll try to at least enjoy it.

For a full month, which began on November 24th, the Queen Elizabeth Plaza is being transformed to an authentic European Christmas Market. Dubbed the Vancouver Christmas Market, Vancouverites will feel that they are transported to a wonderful Christmas village filled with great food, music and Christmas gift ideas.

I got a chance to finally visit the wonderful market and was thrilled to see everyone filled with great cheer and the holiday spirit as they explored the unique vendors from the city as well as vendors from Europe showing off their fantastic products. The weather held up today for us and I even got to try out a great German Smokie and pretzel. We explored the great Christmas Ornaments tent where Russ purchased his very own German Candle Pyramid. I recall having one made out of brass when I was younger, but never made out of wood like the one Russ purchased.

All in all it was a very fun filled early afternoon for us and you can check out the Market until December 24th. The cost is $5 for adults to enter during the weekend and after 12pm on weekdays. The nice thing is that once you pay, you can come back to it at anytime throughout the day

Hopefully this will be a great tradition in the city and hopefully it will expand to a bigger venue next year where more vendors and Christmas shoppers can enjoy it more.

You can follow them on Twitter – @VanChristmas and on Facebook to get updates on bands that are playing and post your photos.

You can see more of my photos on my Flickr Set – Vancouver Christmas Market.

Tomorrow, December 2nd, the organizers of Pepsi Refresh Project will conducting a little experiment in Vancouver to see how socially good we are. They are seeing how much good we can do by spending $100 in 100 minutes.

So how will it work, well participants are asked to bring $20 and they will be assigned to 3 other participants to form a 4 man/woman team with the Pepsi Refresh Project throwing in an additional $20. Then for 100 minutes the team is set free to spend that money on social good. Pay a cab ride for someone, buy an umbrella, if it’s raining for someone, buy someone a fare ride on Translink etc. The possibilities are as endless as the teams imagination.

After the 100 minutes the teams will regroup and tell their stories. Sounds like a great experiment and below are further details you will need to know!

WHO:  The Pepsi Refresh Project and the citizens of Vancouver
WHAT:  An experiment in social good:  4Funds Refresh Vancouver
WHERE:  Canvas Lounge, 99 Powell Street
WHEN: Registration at 5:45 pm; Hit the streets to do good at 6:15 pm;
Meet to share stories at 8:00 pm
WHY:  Because doing good matters.

For more details, or to confirm your participation, please contact:

Matt Juniper
905-949-8255 Ext 225
matt@praxispr.ca

For more information about the Pepsi Refresh Project, please visit
www.refresheverything.ca

I unfortunately won’t be able to attend, but looks like a great event being planned!

Today begins the Annual Eastside Cultural Crawl where artists from the Eastside open up their doors and studios to the public and showcase their many works. Started in 1997 and with only 45 artists in the Eastside. This year marks their 14th year and during the 3 days event over 400 artists will open up their doors to their studios and home. Artists include painters, jewelers, sculptors, furniture makers, musicians, weavers, potters, writers, printmakers, photographers, and glassblowers to name a few.

I had the pleasure of attending this event in the past and was always blown away by some of the talented artists we have in our city. Some of them are struggling, so to have this type of event and being able to show publicly their work is truly amazing. The people are always well behaved and some artists even will offer you a drink or two while you visit. This is a perfect opportunity to talk with them and purchase art. You might even ask them to commission work for you directly.

So get out there and enjoy some great art from our fantastic Vancouver artists!